planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do

This being the online journal of an aspiring writer / science geek working on that ever elusive first professional fiction publication. Toiling by day in the Department of Managing Public Expectations as a policy wonk, and by night (and whenever I can steal time from other responsibilities) an aspiring SF/F Suspense, Thriller writer, whose work can be found in slushpiles near you.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Oscar Wilde

"Art is a lie that lets us see the truth." Pablo Picasso

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." Anaïs Nin

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov

"Easy reading is damn hard writing." Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space." Orson Scott Card

"Do not put statements in the negative form.And don't start sentences with a conjunction.If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that agreat deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.De-accession euphemisms.If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague."

William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing"

"Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself." Franz Kafka

"An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere." Gustave Flaubert

"One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one's own flesh in the inkpot, each time one dips one's pen." Leo Tolstoy

"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies." Ray Bradbury

"Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." Samuel Johnson

"The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads." William Styron

"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand." George Orwell

"Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will." Goethe

All writing all the time, with maybe a few personal bits thrown in for good measure.